God of whimsy
Psalm 104: a creation Psalm
God of whimsy
who dances a double helix with swallowtails on an updraft
who splatters shade spots through locust tree leaves on a late afternoon in early autumn,
and who delights in harmonizing house sparrow, yes, even them!
Guide us into joyful pleasure with our neighbors— all of them—
that we, too, might dance and splatter and delight like you, in the goodness of them.
Through the one who is near, who breathes life into our beings, Amen.
How It Begins: Psalm 104:1a
1 Praise the Lord, O my soul.[1]
This psalm begins and ends with a praise to our creator, the singer’s entire being praises, as she explores particular places and times where she sees Creator’s faithfulness, mercy, and enjoyment of all that has been created.[2] This exploration is unfolded with examples over and over, until at the end, where this praise is repeated. Psalms of creation are not about the how of it, but the who of it: The earth and the heavens— all things— are created and sustained by God. The Psalter includes a variety of different creation psalms (like Psalms 8, 29, 33, and 145), and several others include sections and verses on creation’s relationship with its creator.
This is a grounding psalm, a psalm that lays foundations upon which we stand when we are weeping, wounded, and enraged. Many other Psalms express more brokenness, from psalmists who plead, who curse. But for the most part, that’s not what Psalm 104 is about. This Psalm reflects our creator’s joy and celebration of creation.
God, The Heavens & Waters: Psalm 104:1b-9
O Lord my God, you are very great.
with splendor and majesty you have clothed yourself,
2 Wrapping in light like a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent;
3 The one who secures the rafters of your upper floor on the waters,
who makes the clouds your chariot;
who ride on the wings of the wind;
4 who makes the winds your messengers,
burning flames your ministers.
5 Establishing earth on its foundations—
it shall not slip, forever and ever—
6 You spread the deep over it like a garment;
waters stood over mountains.
7 They fled before your rebuke;
before the sound of your thunder they took flight—
8 With mountains arising, valleys receding—
to the place that you had established for them.
9 You set a boundary that they cannot pass,
so that they cannot again cover the earth.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil
— from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ God’s Grandeur
God the creator is wrapped in light, like a little girl in princess delighting in dress-up clothes, like the sheen of a sunrise, splendid and majestic. Wrapped in light that is both revelation and mystery— revealing God’s presence and ways, concealing God’s essence.
God the creator is the playful tent-maker. God as grandparent, on hands and knees building pillow forts in our living rooms in collaboration with grandkids; building bedrock on the back of a giant tortoise and draping dappled tree cover in which to play hide and seek.
God the creator is the tamer of chaos. Taming chaos is not a violent battle, as many ancient near eastern myths suggest, but more like calming a wild horse, which settles as it learns to trust the one guiding it: Like in Genesis 1, when God’s spirit-breath hovers over waters of chaos, so here Creator calms clouds to leap(!) upon them, riding the wings of the wind, sending tamed wind out like carrier pigeons to deliver messages.
how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his extasy! then off, off forth on swing
— from Hopkins’ The Windhover
The earth shall not slip… in ancient cosmology, God establishes creation to sit upon the waters, upon seas which are essentially chaotic. God’s creation though, is trustworthy.
For me, this image of God as tamer of chaos encourages me when I begin to feel anxious, when my body tenses and gut tightens, like the untangler of tangles. This image encourages me to see the created world as a trustworthy place for life to flourish, in relationship with its creator, and fellow creatures.
This psalm is ancient, but it still calls to us; it engages our imagination to think of our own place— what might Creator wear here? How is Creator revealed…and hidden? What might Creator playfully set up and build here? How might Creator tame the chaos within us, among us, in this place, in this time?
God & The Order of Creation:
Psalm 104:10-23
10 You who release springs to become streams,
between the hills they flow.
11 They provide water for every living being of the field;
the wild donkeys satisfy their thirst.
12 The birds of the air dwell by them;
they give voice among the branches.
13 You, who provide water for the mountains from your upper floor,
from the fruit of your works, the earth is satisfied.
14 You, who make the grass to grow for cattle
and plants for people to cultivate—
to bring forth food from the earth,
15 and wine to bring joy to human hearts;
In order to make faces shine with oil
and bread to sustain human hearts.
16 The trees of the field are satisfied,
the cedars of Lebanon, which he planted,
17 Where birds build their nests,
the stork has her home in the juniper trees.
18 The high mountains are for wild goats;
The rocks are a refuge for badgers.
19 You made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its setting time.
20 You bring on darkness and it becomes night;
all the living beings of the forest come creeping out.
21 The lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22 The sun rises and they gather themselves.
They lie down in their dens.
23 Human beings go out to their work,
to their labor until evening comes.
Creator releases springs, streams flow, providing water for creatures, providing water for plants and trees, which give dwelling places to birds. Creator provides water for mountains, for glaciers, lakes, and springs. Creator provides nourishment for all creatures.
And “the earth is satisfied.”
It makes me think of a rich feast of good things, where all those invited have eaten and drank all that they wanted, stomachs full, hearts full, legs put up on the table, fiddles played and stories shared. There’s abundance, and gratitude, and satisfaction. It is good. It is enough. Enough reminds me of God gifting manna in the wilderness, enough of what each one needs… for the day, with trust that tomorrow, again, there will be enough. This echos into the Lord’s Prayer too, give us today our daily bread. If God cares for streams and oaks and snails and the newly-discovered tilcayo kitty like God gives manna in the desert, what might that look like? What does it look like for earth, and the creatures of earth, to be satisfied? It means that no one takes too much.
But it is not scripture alone that points to the truth of God’s intentions through Jesus, that there is enough for everyone when no one is greedy. Creation itself validates its creator’s intentions. We’ve been reading The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer in our Sunday School class, which is all about reciprocity and mutual flourishing.
Kimmerer writes, Many Indigenous Peoples, including my Anishinaabe relatives… inherit what is known as a “culture of gratitude,” where lifeways are organized around recognition and responsibility for earthly gifts…. Our oldest teaching stories remind us that failure to show gratitude dishonors the gift and brings serious consequences. If you dishonor Beavers by taking too many berries, they will leave. If you waste Corn, you’ll go hungry. Enumerating the gifts you’ve received creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you already have what you need. Recognizing “enoughness” is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more. Data tells the story that there are “enough” food calories on the planet for all 8 billion of us humans to be nourished. And yet people are starving. Imagine the outcome if we each took only enough, rather than far more than our share. The wealth and security we seem to crave could be met by sharing what we have.[3]
The trees are satisfied. The earth is satisfied.
Humans are invited to satisfaction, too! The apostle Peter, (2 Peter 1.3), reminds followers of Jesus that God has given us everything that is needed for life and godliness, everything we need to be sustained, to live faithfully. Like the wild creatures, like the birds and the pastoral creatures, humans are given enough to enjoy and be satisfied. We cultivate food, crafting sustenance for our spirits, bodies, and minds in wine, oil, and bread. These three— transformed grapes, olives, and grain— are cultivated by cultural beings. Humans serve as workers/cultivators in God’s creation, which is not a curse or a burden, but the proper responsibility of being human (Genesis 2:15). Just as mountains worship God by being mountains and stars worship God by being stars, so humans— like all creation/all creatures— worship God by being fully human: by interacting with one another and with fellow creatures, by cultivating gardens and caring for creation, and by laboring for food, all within the scope of mutual satisfaction.
God & the Diversity of Creation:
Psalm 104:24-30
24 How diverse are your works, O Lord!
You have made them all with wisdom.
The earth is filled with your creatures.
25 There is the sea, great and wide;
creeping things innumerable are there,
living beings, small and great.
26 There ships move about,
Leviathan— this one you have formed to delight in.
27 All of them look to you
to give them food in due season.
28 You give to them and they gather it;
You open your hand, they are satisfied with good.
29 You hide your face and they are terrified;
You withdraw their breath and they die,
and they return to their dust.
30 You send your spirit and they are created,
and the face of the earth is renewed.
How manifold are your creatures! How diverse! Creator has created abundant and numerous creatures… soooo many! And diverse!
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame…for Christ plays in ten thousand places
— from Hopkins’ “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”
All of these have been embedded with God’s wisdom. Maybe that’s our instinct, or how a cat knows how to climb a tree, a squirrel to bury walnuts, monarchs to migrate. What wisdom we’ve been filled with!
And ooh, don’t forget leviathan… a giant sea creature, wild and untamable— yet even leviathan, Creator manages what no humans can: To frolic with and delight in this fearsome beast, as if a giant crocodile were leaping like a dolphin alongside a ship for sport. God has designed even the most fearsome creatures of earth— leviathans and cobras and black widows— as sources of God’s divine joy and amusement. Go figure!
Creator is the shaper of time. God is not sun god or moon god, but Creator of sun and moon. Creator of seasons—especially autumn!— of planting seasons and cultivating seasons and harvest seasons, where all food is provided to sustain life as gift. May we create more prayers for our tables that celebrate and give thanks.
Creator of time, who breathes God’s very spirit into the world, who alone sustains the power of life, which the world cannot do. We’ve lost beloved creatures recently: Larry, Betty, Janine, and others. It is Creator’s breath which filled them, fills us, and in Creator’s time, ceases. As Creator breathes, so earth is sustained. Every creature has a place and a time, even mountains, which in time rise and fall. There’s something humbling about that.
God’s Glory and the Singer’s Song:
Psalm 104:31-35b
31 May the glory of the Lord be forever;
May the Lord rejoice in his works.
32 The one who takes notice of the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing for the Lord where I live;
I will make music for my God while I remain.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 May sinners vanish from the earth,
and may the wicked be no more.
Creator’s goodness— revealed in the beginning of creation— endures, unfolding in ongoing renewal of earth, in each day, each season, each generation. Creator continues to delight in each generation. Joy. Delight.
And the psalmist, she sings God’s glory, she meditates— like the bubbling brook or purring cat[4]— on God’s own joy and delight of creation, and God’s trustworthiness.
Glory be to God for dappled things— For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;finches’ wings; Whatever is fickle, freckled. Praise Him all.
— from Hopkins’ Pied Beauty
Alas, our psalmist lives in earth and knows ways humans have not been fully human, ways humans have not tended creation well, have extracted too much, have been greedy and not satisfied, have hoarded and not shared. The psalmist isn’t oblivious to those realities. Those of us who gathered to listen to Bill McKibben speak at Tuesday night’s Faith in Place Environment & Spirituality Summit heard him say that we are currently engaged in running Genesis in reverse. But McKibben, because he is a follower of Jesus (albeit a Methodist), knows we are never without hope. Our responsibility is to continue to love our neighbors… human and beyond, he said. He believes people of faith have an advantage because we realize we are not alone in the work we do to tend creation: “We can understand this world as a complicated god-haunted place of divine intent, and we are the ones who get to preserve and sustain creation.”
Our psalmist, in celebrating Creator’s intimate delight with creation, pauses here to lament, with a petition that asks God to renew earth in such a way that evil is uncreated. May sinners vanish from earth, and may the wicked be no more. Uncreated. Sin, and wickedness, and greed— we’ve all got the rhythms of those built into our habits and habitats, our histories and systems. But the psalmist pleads for them to be removed. May we open ourselves to new rhythms, that our habits and habitats might become places that Creator delights in, breathes life into.
How It Ends: Psalm 104:35c
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!
She finishes her psalm.
The poem has unfolded and bookends with the beginning. Why should the psalmist praise the Lord? Because Creator has infused joy into creation— all of it. Because Creator renews the face of earth. Because Creator has provided abundantly for all earth to be satisfied. Because Creator has crafted us to cultivate and tend with our fellow creatures.
Praise the Lord O my soul! Praise the Lord!
[1] The translation used for Psalm 104 throughout is from Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, Beth LaNeel Tanner, and Rolf A. Jacobson, The Book of Psalms, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT) (Eerdmans, 2014). This commentary served as a primary companion for this post.
[2] This sermon was originally preached at Englewood Christian Church, and Psalm 104 was prayed aloud by Erin, thus the choice for the singer/psalmist’s pronoun. I recognize that the gender of the psalm’s author is unknown.
[3] Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (Scribner, 2025), 10-11.
[4] The Hebrew word for “meditates” (הָגָה, hagah) means something like muttered recitation [the ancients didn’t read silently], verbal ruminating/turning over and over, like the cooing of a pigeon, or purring of a cat… or like the gurgling of a stream. See Psalm 1:2, 3.
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